August is here and that means back to school for kids!  Did you know that Gryffin, Cooper, Jewel-Lee and Nelly learn all year?!  All of the Canine Advocates have to have at least 300 hours of training.   That is a lot of hours!

A lot of this training is field trips. A field trip is where you travel to new places to learn. Our field trips take us to stores, restaurants, factories, churches, malls, parks, hospitals, courts, parks and more. We visit all of these places so our dogs can become comfortable being in different places.

Did you know that our Canine Advocates have to take tests?   Gryffin, Cooper, Jewel-Lee and Nelly have all passed their Public Service Access Test and Canine Good Citizen Test.  Passing these tests means they are always on their best behavior when they are out where dogs don’t usually go.  Some of the things on the tests are being able to walk nicely in a store, laying under a table while people are eating, riding in elevators, and ignoring tasty food everywhere.    It is a lot of work to be a good dog, but Gryffin, Cooper, Jewel-Lee and Nelly enjoy doing their jobs to help people.

Check in next month to see how our Canine Advocates have fun when they are not at work.